The Infrared Heater Scam

You can find out more about infrared heaters at Infrared Heater Scam.com

Now that it is getting colder the ads for the miracle heaters are coming out again.  They promise that their highly efficient heaters can save you 50-60% on your heating bills but do these wonders of Amish technology really work?

It is true that these heaters are highly efficient.  This is because all electrical heaters are approximately 100% efficient.  Any 1500 watt heater will produce roughly 5100 btus.  The ads are telling the truth here but they are being misleading.

Since electric heat is generally 3-5 times as expensive as other forms of heat it is unlikely they will save  you money on  your heating bill.  One possible way they could save you money is if you turned your furnace down and used a heater to keep the area you are in at a comfortable temperature.  I did this a couple years ago and it did save me some money.  I just used a $20 ceramic heater though.  There is no need to spend several hundred dollars on a heater to do this.  Again the ads are misleading.

Check out these Amazon affiliate links.  You can get a $20 heater
or a $400 heater.  They both put out the same amount of heat so which one would you get?

Simplest Way to Cut Heating Costs

The simplest way to cut your heating costs is to not turn on your heat.   This article tells of a  no heat contest where people see how long they can go into the winter without turning on their heat.  The family that won last year made it to December 31.  They live in New Jersey so they must have been pretty cold.  I’m a tight-fisted miser and all for being frugal but I think that is a little too extreme.

That being said I haven’t turned on my heat in my apartment yet.  Since my apartment is on the the third floor it seems to be absorbing heat from other apartments in the building.  Even though the outside temperature has been in the 30s, I don’t think the temperature in my apartment has been below the 60s.  We do have several cold days forecast so I will probably have to turn on my heat sometime this week.  Saving a little money on my heating bill isn’t worth being uncomfortably cold.